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[Page 29]
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then our Australians were dependent upon English Hospitals, and among strangers often felt lonely. The outcome of my visit there was to arrange a fortnightly musical evening, and for that I had the assistance of a number of friends, including two Australian girls Edith Sullivan and Vera Cree, who had won scholarships and were studying at the London Academy.
At the Hon. Mrs. Edwards 'Weekly at Home' for officers, there were also many musical Australians who contributed to their entertainment. Among these were Madam Ada Crossley and William James, late of the Melbourne Conservatorium. Elsir Hall [Elsie Hall], now Mrs. Storr frequently played, and one Sunday evening I remember she was playing with all her old time witchery and every ear intent, when there suddenly came the rude crash of dropping bombs, but no one moved and when she had finished the guests stood around the piano and sang chorus songs, in opposition to the deafening noise of the barrage.
Colonel Mailer, who left as commanding officer of the artillery in which Ron was a Private, came with the disappointing news that the Doctor had pronounced affection of the eye for which he had been some weeks in Hospital as cataract and he was ordered to Australia. With him I went to the Tower of London, and one of the attendants proved to have been in the same regiment in England forty years earlier. Just as we were leaving there was entering a young man who lived in the little town of Alexandra, where both my boys were born, and who used to play together as children.
Now August, the weather still beautiful I accepted Mrs. Hamilton Earle's invitation to her summer house at Crowborough, a favourite resort in Sussex. There was much of interest there, and I very much enjoyed the drives, which are noted for their beauty. Again I found a local interest for Groombridge Castle an Elizabethan Mansion quite four hundred years old, is occupied by an old lady eighty-six years of age, whose nephew will be her heir and he emigrated to Australia when a Youth, married and when over age enlisted and returned to England, seeing for the first time his heritage. His family are being educated in England with a view to fitting them